CSU Cleveland-Marshall College of Law 4LE Student Mary Walsh has always been passionate about animals. In addition to raising her pet dog, she has donated her time and resources to animal rescue organizations and animal welfare advocacy efforts.
However, animal advocacy as a profession was not on the radar for Mary until 2017, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to black out its animal welfare database sparked outrage in the animal advocacy community. Believing that her local advocacy was no longer enough, Mary decided to enroll in law school later that year.
“I want to use my law degree to advocate for and protect vulnerable communities and, in my opinion, animals are the most vulnerable,” explained Walsh. “In fact, they are essentially property under the law, though arguably they are receiving ‘rights’ in the sense that laws mandate certain duties by humans.”
Law school had always interested Mary, but she elected not to immediately attend after graduating from the Cleveland State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature due to financial constraints. Instead, Mary has worked for more than a decade at University Hospitals (UH), primarily as a Research Regulatory Specialist on clinical trials unit at UH’s Seidman Cancer Center.
Mary has continued to work at UH while attending CSU Cleveland-Marshall as a part-time evening student. It was CSU C|M|LAW’s evening program that allowed her to attend law school, and Mary feels a special bond with her fellow evening classmates. She considers her class of evening students to be her adopted family and each other’s biggest advocates.
Mary has become involved in the CSU C|M|LAW community beyond her evening classes, including as Chief Managing Editor of the Cleveland State Law Review. As an associate on the Law Review in 2019, Mary published a note, “Feeding Fido: The Case for Restitution in Ohio Animal-Cruelty Convictions” that she would go on to present at the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s (ALDF) annual conference. This led to an opportunity for Mary to serve as a remote clerk in the ALDF’s Criminal Justice Program.
“ALDF are like the rockstars of the Animal Law field and I never thought I would have the opportunity to work with them,” said Walsh.
Her project during that clerkship involved researching Commerce Clause challenges to the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, a recent federal anti-cruelty statute. She also researched and drafted letters of assistance for federal and state prosecutors and wrote memos on the statutory meaning of cruelty laws in several different states.
Previously, Mary served as an extern locally with the Cleveland Metroparks where she worked with the Metroparks’ Chief Legal & Ethics Officer and CSU C|M|LAW graduate Rosalina Fini ’94, who commended Mary’s work with the organization.
Mary spent much of her semester at the Metroparks working on two amicus curiae briefs. She researched the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and interviewed biologists and conservationists with the Metroparks including at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo to learn how the Act assisted them and how the changes could harm their efforts. Mary then drafted an amicus brief demonstrating that rule changes violated the Metroparks's interests and that the ESA as previously written had assisted the Metroparks' conservation efforts and therefore proposed changes should not be implemented.
“The project was an incredible experience because I was able to combine my passion in animal law with research and writing in a way I never expected as a law student,” explained Walsh. “I really enjoyed being able to translate the needs of biologists and conservationists into legal arguments. Knowing that I was using skills I had recently learned to help those who are responsible for the parks I hike almost every weekend made the experience even better.”
Mary’s experience at the Cleveland Metroparks was shaped by recent political decisions including the removal of environmental law regulations. Her clerkship with the ALDF, and several other of her legal experiences, have been shaped by recent political action and regulatory decisions. While Mary disagrees with many of the recent political and regulatory actions, she feels that being able to work in opposition of the actions confirms that her decision to attend law school occurred at the perfect time.
“I often think about this (time in history) and wonder what it would have been like to be in law school a decade ago. I am so glad that I waited to attend law school, in part because of the unique place we find ourselves in (as a society),” said Walsh.
In addition to working for the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Cleveland Metroparks, Mary has interned at Community Legal Aid, where she spent time in small municipal courts and wrote a white paper on their unconstitutional court debt practices. She also served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Ashley Kilbane at Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, where she developed an interest in civil law and honed her research and writing skills. Mary currently is a law clerk at Friedman & Nemecek, where she has called upon her medical field experience while working on a federal healthcare fraud case.
Mary has enjoyed every one of her legal field experiences thus far and would go back to work at any one of them if needed. In the long-term, she realizes she will be leaving a good career in the medical field to start over in the legal field and wants to make that decision worthwhile. Mary will do that by spending her life advocating for and protecting others, especially animals, and leaving the world as a better place than she found it.